AGGRESSION- neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression

Question 1

what are neurotransmitters?

Answer 1

chemicals that allow impulses in the brain to be trasmitted from one part of brain to another

Question 2

what are the two important transmitters that play a role in aggression?

Answer 2

low levels of serotonin and high levels of dopamine

Question 3

what is serotonin believed to do?

Answer 3

reduce aggression by inhibiting response to emotional stimuli that may otherwise have led to an aggressive response

Question 4

what do low levels of serotonin in brain suggest?

Answer 4

particularly the pre frontal cortex linked with higher chances of impulsive b, aggression, suicide as the inhibiting effect is lessened

Question 5

who gave supporting evidence for this theory?

Answer 5

mann et al

Question 6

what happened in mann et al?

Answer 6

found supporting evidence for theory in one study 35 healthy subjects were given drug that depleted serotonin levels

Question 7

findings of mann et al?

Answer 7

judged aggression based on hostility scores on q found lower levels of serotonin found to associated with higher leves of aggression in males hw not females

Question 8

what does dopamine and high levels of it believed to ?

Answer 8

cause aggression in individiuals. support for this comes from amphetamine drugs which been shown to increase lev of aggression in normal people

Question 9

what happens for patients suffering schizophrenia?

Answer 9

anti psychotics which reduce dopamine levels found to reduce aggressive b exhibited by patients again supporting this theory

Question 10

what research linked dopamine & aggression?

Answer 10

couppls et al

Question 11

what are hormones?

Answer 11

chemicals that regulate and control bodily functions

Question 12

what is testosterone?

Answer 12

male sex hormones and been constantly linked with aggression link not clear cut, when test levels peak at puberty in boys so does aggression also suggesting correlational link h.w still cannot be sure of cause & effect propose aggressive individ also produce more test and not vice versa

Question 13

what do other theories propose with testosterone?

Answer 13

testosterone acts to sensitise neural circuits in the brain in early days after birth causing changes which affect aggression levels in adulthood

Question 14

what does evidence from this come from?

Answer 14

castration studies on animals that been castrated after birth shown lack of test shows lack of aggression than those castrated later in life

Question 15

what is cortisol believed to have?

Answer 15

mediating effect on hormones such as higher levels of testosterone as higher levels increase anxiety and inhibits testosterone levels = aggression

habitually violent offenders have lower levels of cortisol suggesting link

Question 16

what does another explanation with cortisol propose?

Answer 16

having low cortisol level is unpleasant thus seeking out aggressive encounters becomes more likely as a means to promote cortisol release to reduce such feelings

Question 17

where does support for serotonin come for?

Answer 17

raleigh et al

Question 18

what happened in raleigh et al?

Answer 18

fed vervet monkeys on diets that either increased sero levels or decreased. 4 monkeys ate diets increased sero = less aggression and opposite for other- other studies found animals found to be docile and bred for domestication purposes have increases in sero over following generation supporting thoery of sero inhib aggression

Question 19

what happened in ferrari et al?

Answer 19

support for influence of both sero and dopamine. allowed rats to fight everyday over period of 10 days at exactly same time

Question 20

what did they find in ferrari et al?

Answer 20

elevated levels of dopamine were present and reduced levels of sero even though animal had not fought -ferari and team claimed this showed how experience had changed animals brain chemistry by altering sero and dopamine levels lending support for sero and dopamine involvement in aggression

Question 21

why are animal studies such as these two beneficial?

Answer 21

allow us to draw conclusions as to how anatomy of humans may work throguh experimentation on them rather than humans which would be unethical

Question 22

negatives of the two studies?

Answer 22

animal researcg has been argued to be unethical and morally wrong and such study raises ethical concerns due to potential suffering inflicted

Question 23

what study suggests that link btw testosterone and aggression isn’t that straight forward?

Answer 23

bain et al
albert et al
kreuz & rose
mcburnett et al

Question 24

what happened in bain et al?

Answer 24

found no signfi difference in testrene levels btw violent offenders chaged w murder and non violent off charged with burgularly

Question 25

what study was similar with bain et al?

Answer 25

albert et al

Question 26

what happened in albert et al?

Answer 26

claimed that despite many studies showing correlation btw test and aggression this was based on small samples of only men and usually within prison thru the use of self reports of severity of their crimes which may lack internal validity

Question 27

what did kreuz and rose find?

Answer 27

no diff in test levels when comparing prisoners who had prison recods for fighting and non fighting

Question 28

what happened in kreuz and rose?

Answer 28

those with higher levels of violent crimes in adolescents did have sign higher levels of test than those with no such history- researchers beleived when indiv place in social encironments that put in risk in developin anti social b test may be an important additional factor = risk of violent b

Question 29

what happened in mcburnett et al?

Answer 29

studied young children over period of 4 yrs and found those with low cortisol lev 3 times more agressive sooner than those with higher

Question 30

what does it suggest a possible link with?

Answer 30

cortisol and aggression hw link is correlational we cannot be certain of caused and effect and other variables

Question 31

what are the chosen issues and debates?

Answer 31

reductionist, gender bias,deterministic

Question 32

how is it reductionist?

Answer 32

as ignore role of cog and psychological factors and not everyone with such neural/ hormonal imbalances have been found to always be aggressive and most research mainly on correlation which may be unreliable and oversymplyginf role of hormones and neural transmitters

Question 33

how is it deterministic?

Answer 33

such theories determinsitic in assuming people will always act aggressive should they have imbalances and ignores ole of free will

Question 34

how is it gender bias?

Answer 34

most research into aggression based on males therfore cannot generalise as much to women and lack of research into women = limitation - women less prone to violence but barely any evidence